July 12, 2019

The Gaze as an Act of Defiance: Zanele Muholi @ The 58th International Art Exhibition, Venice

Identity and gender with a fashion twist, that's how you could describe Zanele Muholi's portraits on display in several sections of the Arsenale at the 58th International Art Exhibition in Venice and in the Central Pavilion at the Giardini.

Known for her evolving series of portraits of South African black lesbians entitled "Faces and Place" (2006-ongoing), the South African photographer and filmmaker works against muting and invisibility.

Born in 1972 in Umlazi, South Africa, Muholi, the co-founder in 2002 of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) and of Inkanyiso, a platform for queer and visual activism, defines herself as a visual activist rather than just an artist and photographer.

Her work often results in an investigation of the discrepancies in post-apartheid South Africa between the equality promoted by its 1996 Constitution and the bigotry and violence targeting individuals within the LGBTQ community, and explores the nature of trans, intersex, and queer lives.

Her powerful portraits on view at the Venice Biennale can't certainly be ignored. Part of the "Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness" (2012-ongoing) series, these images form a sort of visual diary of 365 images in the life of a black lesbian in South Africa.

The portraits, taken in different places including Cagliari, Nuoro, Cape Town and Parktown (Johannesburg), are printed in a large format and hung above or at the side of different entrances of the Arsenale, but it is not the format that is important, but the pose of the sitter, usually staring at the viewers' gaze, confronting and challenging them, expressing feelings going from pride and curiosity, to disenchantment and sadness.

The series is completed by the silver gelatin prints on view in the Central Pavilion in which Muholi avoids instead the gaze of the viewers.

This series is much more personal than others and beautifully composed and, like all her other series of images it has a fashion twist: in her pictures there are indeed often striking headdresses and headpieces made with simple materials, including ropes, hair bun shapers and scissors or extravagant jewellery pieces made with safety pins.

In the notes accompanying the photographs at the Giardini the artist and activist explains: "Experimenting with different characters and archetypes, I have portrayed myself in highly stylised fashion using the performative and expressive language of theatre. The black face and its details become the focal point, forcing the viewer to question their desire to gaze at images of my black figure. By exaggerating the darkness of my skin tone, I'm reclaiming my blackness, which I feel is continuously performed by the privileged other."

Zanele Muholi's works are currently also part of the exhibition "Kiss My Genders" at London's Hayward Gallery (until 8th September), an event comprising works by over 30 artists, all of them tackling gender issues.